Leanne's Room

Hi, I'm not sure how blogs work so didn't know the protocol on how to ask
design questions and opted to e-mail.  Hope that's ok!

I have a house with living upstairs.  We enter up the long stairway
into the living room that is open to the dining.  I need to
redecorate and I love your style!  Can you help?  You can move anything
around, change the blinds, paint color, pictures etc.  The paintings that I
have I would like to keep and the couches are new. The pictures
are sitting on top of the big mirror in the photo just for safe keeping.
I'm up for painting the fireplace, covering it up, adding molding - whatever
you say, I will do! :)

My sincere appreciation,

Leanne

Leanne,

I love your "Whatever you say I will do!" attitude!  I wish my husband had that attitude!

Let's start with this room above.  You have issues with rhythm, balance and pattern. 

1.  Rhythm.  Rhythm is one of the principles of design.  In your room, you are lacking rhythm by alternation by having the bookcase and small cabinet to the right and left of the fireplace.  You can get away with similar looks when you have some windows with draperies or other elements that can separate the eye from the hard piece, hard piece, hard piece.  See this post where I discussed the principle.  In that post the gal had lots of case pieces on the walls of her bedroom.  Your example is less extreme, but sometimes an extreme example can help you to see what you are doing wrong.  What would I do on that wall?  I would cover the brick and build-in the whole wall.  On your built-in wall- you could add the three pictures sitting on easels as part of your decor.  I would scatter them, not line them up.   The scale is a little small for over the sofa.  Here are a few ideas:

(photo from houzz)

 You could combine a painted brick or stone fireplace with stained wood built-ins. 

(photo from the Yellow Cape Cod)

The most common look is covering it all in a painted white wood, which is always nice. 

When the wall is a built-in, it is seen as one item, not three, therefore, the absence of rhythm issues.  For a more in-depth description of rhythm, look at this post. 

2.  Balance.  Your room is more heavily weighted on the left.  I know you said you were going to keep your furniture- but I will give you a long term plan, because I think it is too large for the space, and too plain in style and color to really make the room sing.  I would replace your sofa/love with two love seats, which will give you space to replace your chair with two chairs.  Keep the scale smaller, and colors lighter.  (unless you have a three year old...)

(Beckett Love seat by Bernhardt Interiors)

(Pierre chair by Room and Board)

Add a nice coffee table, centered with the room.

Now, the art above your love seat should balance the window with window treatments.

(art from Uttermost)

I would add drapes to your window.  Floor to ceiling.  (drapes from Pottery Barn)

3.  Pattern.  Your "all the same fabric everywhere" look falls a little flat.  ;-)  You will notice that already I have added some pattern.  In addition to the throw pillows, there is pattern in the new chair selection, and also the window treatments.  I would add one more big pattern to really tie the room together.  Get a nice large area rug, probably 8 x 10, to finish off the space.  This is your unifier.  (rug from homedecorator.com)

Remember to have a lighting plan in your room as well as some plants.  ;-) 

XOXO

Christine

Rules for Furniture Placement

Hi Christine,

We found your blog and love all your great ideas.  We also have four children but all in the teen years now. Our home has a family room and also a living and dining room.  Our formal living room is never used and we want to make it more livable space.  Hopefully you can help us with a design.

We were thinking of using it as another family room and including a television - however it would not be a wall mounted tv.  I would like the room to have a small writing desk...something to put a laptop on, or to do work. We love leather and were considering a leather couch and loveseat but thought that might me too much for the room.

As you can see from the floor plan, the dining room and living room are connected.  Our dining room has a formal cherry dining room set.

Thank you for any suggestions you can provide us.

- Gail

Hi Gail,

I love your idea of making your living room more functional for your family.  Just a few weeks ago, I turned my own living room into the TV room.  In my home, I just hated sharing the focal point with the fireplace, and I felt like there was a lot of seldom used square footage in our home. 

Your floorplan does present some challenges.  I came up with two options for you, and I wanted to share with you how I came up with them. 

1.  Consider your spacing.  When a TV is going in the room, the furniture should not be more than 12 feet from the TV.  Your room is almost 18 feet wide.  You absolutely should not have the furniture on one end, and the TV 18 feet away.  This rules out placing the sofa on the long solid wall. 

2.  Consider balance in your architecture.  When you ignore your architecture for the sake of functionality, it just never looks right.  Your windows are centered in the wall.  This has created a central focus to the room.  It would  also look awkward to have the sofa brought into the room, with a walkway behind it, facing the long solid wall, as it throws the balance of the architecture off entirely.  Notice how in both of my options, the furniture is centered with the window. (This concept is complicated, as you would never use every window as a center- but take a look at rooms, and ask yourself what the architect was thinking.)  Work with your architecture, not against it.

3.  Do not line your walls with furniture.  Just don't do it.  It creates super dull negative space, as well as poor conversation areas.  You will notice that the sofa is against the wall in the first floorplan.  This is not what I consider having the "furniture against the walls."  If the room were larger, I would have it pulled out, yes, but with the chairs brought out into the room, it works fine.  Make sure that in a situation like the one above, the sofa is brought out about 12 inches, to give comfortable room for drapery panels to hang freely.

4.  Consider your rhythm.  By this, I am suggesting that you break up your case pieces.  You want something to hold the TV, as well as a desk.  Do not put those two pieces on the same side of the room.  Notice how in each option the case pieces are separated. 

5.  What is the focal point?  Here is where I say your room is really not ideal for a TV.  It would be better if there were no door to the dining room on that wall.  I don't really like a focal point of a room to be a door to a different room.  But, ideal or not, it is better that you make the room work for your family.  This is one reason why I like the arrangement with the four chairs.  In that arrangement, it is a center focal point, and the TV is there merely as a secondary focal point, which I find ideal.  However, it is only ideal if you have just two people watching the TV at once, and the other arrangement allows comfortable viewing for five.  Sometimes furniture arranging is about compromise. 

6.  Don't get a sofa and matching chairs in the same leather.  Get your leather sofa, (if you go with a sofa)- but have your chairs in a different material.  Vary your textures and include patterns. 

Good luck Gail!

XOXO

Christine

Rhythm 101

Christine,

Will what you suggested (referring to this post) flow ok with this side of the house?

- Kim

I want to start by addressing rhythm.  No- this has nothing to do with dancing.  Although I could teach that as well. (I can do a mean thriller line dance.)

Rhythm is one of the Principles of Design, and, in my opinion, it is one of the more abstract, difficult to teach principles.  For designers, and those with the right instincts, it simply comes naturally.  There are also many different avenues where the principle is engaged.  I will not attemtpt to teach them all- but will teach some. 

Rhythm is the flow of a room, as well as the flow of the home.  Your instinct was right, Kim, to question whether the advice I gave you on the family room would be consistent in the dining and living rooms.  (And- no- it doesn't really flow...  )  I suggest a compromise paint color that can go throughout- such as Kilim Beige SW6106.  This is close to white- but warm enough that you don't have to re-decorate the living area.  Using the same paint color will help with the rhythm.  Then go ahead and invite some of the blues into this room by replacing throw pillows, etc.  Homes with a lot of different paint colors can sometimes have a problem with rhythm.  I refer to them as "White House" homes- where you have the "blue room" and the "red room"  etc.  I am not suggesting to everyone that they have only one paint color. 

Rhythm by alternation is something I have addressed in the past- and something that is glaring in the room above.  The China hutch next to the buffet.  Whenever you have two or more case pieces next to one another- you most likely have a rhythm problem in the room.  What does this mean?  It means that the room doesn't "feel" quite right.  It is frequently a subconscious thing, but quite likely it is keeping the room from feeling great.  This has nothing to do with items "fitting" or being the right scale.  When you have case pieces intermixed with upholstery and plants and wall decor- you create rhythm by alternation.  Your dining room looks more like a furniture storage room. 

Another word about rhythm.  Rhythm should lead the individual that enters the room to the focal point.  This is a problem in your room, as I do not see a focal point.

 

 You have another rhythm problem with this room.  You have no rhythm by height variation.  You have two sofas, in a row, (yes they do turn a corner- but still...)  When you have a large long wall- you need something tall on the wall to break it up.  This is similar to this girl's room.  A large piece of furniture would be great- or even your buffet with a substantial piece of wall decor over it- would be great.  Your current wall decor is far too small and weak to do the job.  The scale is more consistent with the thirty inch wall to the left of the window.  Hang the two vertically.  Any "off-set" diagonal hanging will make me puke. (Not that you would ever do that.)

I took the dimensions you gave me and drew up a quick sketch for furniture placement.  I did not include all of your furniture, and I added a 36 x 36 coffee table, as well as a sofa table.  Your room is not wide. You have a minimal clearance of 36 inches- but the furniture does fit this way.  You will notice that I did not include your end tables, and only have one leaf in your table.  The table lamps you have on your end tables are too large for your buffet.  You could hang your mirror above your buffet- but a piece of art would be ideal.  Unless you are a houseful of supermodels- a mirror is not exactly the ideal focal point.  However- it is large enough that it would work. 

You have a long wall in the living room with nothing on it- consider a collage of painted frames:

(photo from Traditional Home)

You might notice that I drew in a new rug.  7 x 10- or 6 1/2 x 10 would work great.  8 x 10 is standard- it would have one foot on a rug, and one foot not on a rug in your traffic path. I would do something fresh and bright like this one:.  Then I wold paint your China hutch blue- like the case below from Sommerset Bay:

Paint your table white and chairs green.

You also need more lighting- I added some sconces and some uplights at your plants, and some smaller buffet/ table lamps- consider adding can lighting....  and some plants...

XOXO

Christine

Abby's Big Barrier of Boring Beige

I would like to start by saying that I have been having computer problems- they are really ticking me off- so after reading this post- I know I came across strong- and please don't cry or hate me- I am just mad at my computer- and taking it out on Abby's family room.

Abby sent me pictures of her home- but I was unable to find actual questions in her e-mails- so - I thought I'd just run with it.

First of all- the furniture is far from ideal for the space- you have two large sofas and a love seat all in a non-specific style, and a color that is hard to find a name for. It seems so non-committal to me. Like you either don't know what style you like, or you are too timid to go there- or perhaps you and your husband have such different styles that each of you moved to the middle - which ended up being the middle of nowhere. But the result is a room full of nothing. There is also such a large amount of furniture that it is forcing you to push everything against the wall. If you have fewer than nine children- you don't need that much seating. I see a zebra chair that tells me there is a stylish girl there peeking ever so timidly out behind a big barrier of boring beige. So- anyway- if replacing the furniture is in the budget- let me know- but I won't address that in this post. One more word about furniture arrangement- case pieces almost never look good on an angle. Find a wall that is the right scale and move your curio. In addition to the angle being a problem- itis also next to your TV stand. Case piece next to case piece is a rhythm killer.

Secondly, your paint colors are horrible. I know that might sound strong. But they don't look good with each other- or with your furniture. The red wall and red chair do not go well. This is not the right style of room for an "accent wall." As regular readers of my blog know- the use of the "accent wall" is much easier in a more contemporary setting rather than in such a traditional room. HGTV are doing it's watchers a great disservice with all of the "accent walls" they are using. I would go much lighter and more neutral in your paint color. Check out the paint color I suggested for Jen in this post- and see how it looks with your items. Put your new paint on all of your walls.

Third- create more variety in wall decor. Look around the room. If there is not a window, there is a "picture" on every wall. You need variety. Check out this post that I did for Rebbecca- it goes into wall decor variety in more detail. There are SO MANY more things you can put on your walls other than just pictures. Try to do something different on each wall. Think outside the box. Anyone have some unique suggestions for Abby's wall decor?

Fourth- add drapes. Your window treatments are not done without a fabric treatment. Use that as a way to solidify your color pallet for the room. I see red, I see beige, I see black and white, and a rug that I can't really tell what colors are in there. Your room is disconnected. I selected a fabric for you (at the top of the post) from Robert Allen. Invite more pattern. Use your window treatments to give yourself a color pallet. I can't really tell what type of blinds you currently have- but they remind me of your sofas. No color- no texture- no style. I would replace them with dark woven woods- the color of your coffee table.

Fifth- add a focal point. Of course the focal point is the fireplace- but your fireplace has some issues. The trim above it makes it impossible to hang anything there. I would remove it. This is your focal point. The furniture faces it, the rhythm of the room should be all directing and pointing to this great focal point. Your surround is too small- the mantle is too skinny.... Perhaps start with simply removing the trim- and hanging something great over it.

It's pretty dangerous responding to a question without being able to read the question... I hope I was more helpful than hurtful...

Rhythm by Alternation

Hi Christine,

I have been following your blog for a few months now and have been plowing through your archives. I really enjoy your posts, think you give great advice and crack up over your sometimes harsh comments! I am hoping that you can help me with our master bedroom. I have learned a ton from reading your blog, but as the pictures show, I have not put your advice into action yet. I know the error of my ways. I have been pattern-phobic and my decorating has been dull, dull, dull. I know this room needs a unifier, it lacks texture, needs window treatments and that there is way too much dark wood furniture everywhere. My problem is that I need more than just rules, I need specific instructions on what to get! We painted the walls a Ben Moore color called "Starfish." I occasionally like it, but often do not. It looks very different in different lights sometimes approaching circus peanut orange! Not a good thing. I'm wondering if with new bedding, window treatments and maybe an area rug, the color would look better and the room would be more pulled together. If not, I am not opposed to repainting. If so, I would want a warm neutral. The room gets a ton of sunlight. I am unsure of what to do with the double window (where the chair is) with the palladian window above. Sun pours through that window in the morning and drives us crazy. The way the ceiling angles you cannot put a rod across the width of the windows including the palladian. I do not like angled curtain rods unless you can convince me that they look okay. Right now we have white honey comb blinds on all 6 windows. Very boring. We recently inherited a bunch of furniture from my mother-in-law. That is why there is so much stuff in there and why it's such a mish mash. The only things that must stay are the long double dresser, the tall lingerie chest and the tall cabinet. Also the bed and t.v. and ideally the book case but that's not a drop dead. We have a funky loveseat that I am thinking of having reupholstered to go into the nook with the window where the chair currently is. I would like that in a funky cool pattern. Maybe that could help unify the room. Not sure how much that would cost and if we might be better off just buying new stuff instead of reupholstering. It is a pretty large room. The main area is approx 18' long (the headboard wall) by 17". This does not include the area where the chair is - that is 3' deep by 7.25'. It also doesn't include the area where the long dresser is (the section of wall is approx 8' long). Across from it is the master bath and our walk in closet. As you can see from the photos the ceiling angles down in spots. This restricts where furniture can go. The t.v. is tricky as the ceiling angles down where we have it so we can't mount it on the wall. If you would like an actual floor plan I can try to get one for you. Our scanner is not working right now but I could try to get you one if you would like to see it. I would love to get specific recommendations on art work (I know what we have is too small), rug, window treatments, bedding and accessories. Basically everything we need to make this room look cool and put together. Our taste is more clean and simple, definitely not ornate and I gravitate towards warm earthy colors. I have attached way too many pictures but it's impossible to get the whole room in just a few shots. Thanks so much in advance for any help you can offer!

Mary

Hi Mary-

I see what you mean with the color- I really like it in the photo above- and don't like it at all in the photo below. I would repaint. Consider Bagel SW 6114 by Sherwin Williams. It is a nice neutral tone- but with a lot of the peachy orange undertone- that I think looks really nice in the photo above. You can see it here.

I thought I might attack your room photo by photo. First- I cannot see your picture at all. It is too small- and the subject matter is too small. When you have art work over a bed- you need to be able to see it from across the room- not have to crawl up on the bed to see it. Replace it with a larger piece- with a larger subject- like the boat at the top of the post. I like your bedding- but I would add another element- fold the duvet to cover the bottom 1/3 or 2/3 and show a pretty blanket- or cool sheets or something. To add interest- consider an area rug. The one above is from Angela Adams. Going this direction- I would replace the throw pillows- with something like this teal one.

Here above you can definitely see that the chair does not go with the paint. Yikes. Add drapery panels on all of your windows- You have a more contemporary bed and bedding- so you can keep it simple- but use an interesting texture- like a linen.

OK- here it really needs help. One principle designers learn in school is called rhythm by alternation. What I see here is case piece, case piece, case piece, case piece case piece. Yeahhh- that's no good. The result of the uninterrupted wood furniture lined up along the wall is a lack of rhythm. It's a room killer. A room that incorporated rhythm by alternation would alternate case pieces with upholstry, drapery, plants, or other items. Move the lingerie to where the the four legged table is, keep the dresser and get rid of the rest- add a nice plant in current locationce of the lingerie. I would do a Roman shade in the same material as the drapes- and replace the white blinds with dark woven roller shades- about the same tone as your wood furniture.

Case piece, case piece, hard chair (almost as bad as another case piece) I would move the secretary- it is too traditional for the bed. (When I say move- I mean to another room). Your room is really off to a nice start- but just becasue this furniture fits- does not mean that you should use it. Your neighbors are going to love your yard sale!!!

Thanks for writing in!

Christine